AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, officials from Overwatch Systems outlined the company's recent critical communications and situational awareness assistance it provided to support emergency operations activities in Louisiana and Mississippi in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Specifically, Overwatch Systems' Tactical Operations Division deployed an engineering team from the company's Austin, Texas and Washington, D.C. offices to New Orleans, Louisiana to help support the combined federal, state and local Emergency Operations Center (EOC), located at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown New Orleans. The Overwatch Systems engineers brought together components from the company's newly launched Overwatch Intelligence Center (OIC) software product line (including a multi-media database, 2-D mapping, analysis and reporting capabilities) to provide immediate, real-time capabilities to emergency officials and first responders. Considered a critical tool in the New Orleans based emergency operations, the integrated OIC provides vital data used in the EOC's daily briefings. The system is also helping to provide real-time, network enabled situational awareness for the decision-makers based in the command center so that relief and recovery planning can be properly implemented throughout the region. In addition, the engineering team integrated InterScope (a product for 3-D geospatial analysis) and RemoteView (a product from Overwatch Systems' Geospatial Division) for imagery analysis. These products provide visualization capabilities to disaster relief planners by offering multimedia data, including 3-D and 2-D map views that are plotted with critical, visually recognizable data. All of these technologies have been integral to the immediate relief and ongoing rebuilding efforts in the region.

At the same time in Mississippi, Overwatch Systems' Tactical Operations Division provided support to Naval Station Pascagoula by accelerating the delivery of a multi-band satellite communications terminal to the base. This support enabled critical communications links and the base's network to be re- started immediately following the storm, allowing base operations to continue virtually un-interrupted. In this effort, three Overwatch Systems Tactical Operations personnel from the company's Richardson, Texas office traveled to Pascagoula with the system to ensure its set-up and proper operation. The terminal is a 2.4M flyaway system that operates in C- and Ku-bands and X- and Ka-Bands.

Jim Wade, President of Overwatch Systems Tactical Operations said, "Every one of us saw the destruction on the Gulf Coast after the hurricane and we were acutely aware of what tools first responders were going to need in the storms' aftermath. Because of this, we were extremely proud to be able to provide support to disaster relief efforts in the region and, in a small way, help people get back on their feet."

About Overwatch Systems

Overwatch Systems provides integrated, multi-source, intelligence collection and analysis tools for the U.S. Department of Defense and Homeland Security, as well as specialized communications systems. Overwatch engineers are working to develop products that speed the flow of actionable intelligence to the warfighters, first responders and the policy-makers across a multitude of operational scenarios. For more information, please visit http://www.overwatch.com/.

CONTACT: Doug Redman of Overwatch Systems, +1-512-329-6661, x1018; or
Tyler Beardsley of JANSON Communications, +1-703-393-2500, for Overwatch
Systems

Web site: http://www.overwatch.com/